“The first Christian service I went to [in prison] was a three-day retreat that our case workers in prison wanted 12 of us lifers to go to,” she said. The retreat began as a Catholic program but then turned nondenominational.
“It’s still an ongoing strong, strong Christian program that offenders love, because so many people come in that show the love of God that make [inmates] feel like we aren’t just a number—and showed that they really loved us,” said Henderson.
Henderson shared that she became skilled at putting clemency packets together and was able to help other inmates do the same. Some of those inmates were granted clemency and got to go home before she did. “But that was okay,” she said. “That was a miracle. That was God’s miracle. It wasn’t my miracle yet, but I knew if he would do it for them, he would do it for me.”
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While still incarcerated, Henderson helped launch a program that helps mothers in prison connect with their children in a setting without officers around.
The program was started after Henderson learned that “many mothers in prison didn’t know how to be mothers or talk to their children,” she explained. “They didn’t know have have that connection. They didn’t know their children’s love language.”
“When the Light Finds Us: From a Life Sentence to a Life Transformed” is now available wherever books are sold.
